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karolina_kat 's review for:

The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch
4.0

The Hangman's Daughter is a crime novel that wears a historical fiction coat. On the historical side - I've enjoyed it very much. The research done is outstanding.Descriptions of the executioner's work and the dynamics of a small town, and the position of women in 17th century are both interesting and shocking.

As a criminal novel, this book is not as great - it is interesting, until you reach the solutions. Of course superstition do play a huge part in everything (just as it did in those times), but it all has a bit childish feeling to it. Maybe it's because of the greatly built suspense, maybe because the mystery seemed to promise so much more with the witches' marks, deaths of children and a devil with a boney hand that walked among the people.

All in all, I'd love to give this novel 3.5 stars but as I can't, I'm going to round it up this time, for the appreciation of the background research put into this story.